Archive September 11, 2025

A music festival in Belgium has cancelled a planned concert by a celebrated German orchestra over concerns about its Israeli conductor’s stance on the war in Gaza.

The Flanders Festival Ghent said on Wednesday that it had cancelled the Munich Philharmonic’s scheduled performance on September 18 due to a lack of “clarity” about the views of its incoming conductor Lahav Shani.

While Shani had spoken in favour of “peace and reconciliation” in the past, his attitude towards the “genocidal regime in Tel Aviv” was unclear given his role as the chief conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the festival organisers said.

“Given the inhumanity of the current situation, which is also leading to emotional reactions in our own society, we believe it is undesirable to allow this concert to go ahead,” the organisers said, adding that they had chosen not to collaborate with partners who had not “distanced themselves unequivocally from that regime.”

The Munich Philharmonic Orchestra said it was “appalled” at the decision.

“We, the Munich Philharmonic and I, are profoundly shocked that a festival in Belgium – in the heart of Europe and the country that hosts the headquarters of the European Union – would make such an inconceivable decision,” executive director Florian Wiegand said in a statement.

Shani did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Belgian and German officials also condemned the cancellation.

In an interview with public broadcaster RTBF, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot warned against conflating Israeli and Jewish identity with the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

“Remember about 10 years ago, we had the attacks that indeed hurt Belgium, causing injuries and deaths. They were Islamist-motivated, and we had a Muslim community that, rightly so, called for avoiding conflation, so that individuals of Muslim origin or faith would not immediately be equated with terrorists,” Prevot said.

“Let us not repeat the same kind of conflation by assuming that every Israeli or every Jewish person of faith automatically supports Mr Netanyahu’s policies. That is not the case.”

Germany’s Minister of State for Culture and the Media, Wolfram Weimer, blasted the cancellation as a “disgrace to Europe”.

“This is blatant antisemitism,” Weimer, a former newspaper editor, said on X.

The Philippines “strongly protests” a newly approved Chinese plan to create a nature preserve in Scarborough Shoal, a contested territory claimed by both countries in the South China Sea.

China’s State Council announced plans on Wednesday to build a nature preserve on the 3,500-hectare islet, calling it an “important guarantee for maintaining … diversity, stability and sustainability”.

The preserve will include “core” and “experimental” zones covering virtually the entire territory, Chinese state media added on Thursday.

The plans drew immediate ire in the Philippines, where the Department of Foreign Affairs promised on Thursday to lodge a “formal diplomatic protest against this illegitimate and unlawful action”.

“Bajo de Masinloc is a longstanding and integral part of the Philippines over which it has sovereignty and jurisdiction,” the department added, using the name given to the shoal by Spanish colonisers.

But China’s Foreign Ministry pushed back on Thursday, saying the area had never been part of Philippine territory and rejecting what it called “groundless accusations or so-called protests” from Manila.

“We urge the Philippines to immediately cease its infringements, provocations, and wanton hype, so as to avoid adding complicating factors to the maritime situation,” spokesman Lin Jian said at a daily press briefing.

Scarborough Shoal, a triangular islet located more than 200km (119 miles) from the Philippines’ Luzon, has been the site of frequent clashes since Beijing seized it from the Philippines in 2012.

In a recent August incident, Beijing expelled Philippine vessels from waters near the site, while Manila released video footage showing a Chinese navy vessel smashing into one of its own during a chase. And in late April, the Philippines said China was engaging in “dangerous manoeuvres and obstruction” in the area.

China claims Scarborough Shoal based on what it sees as historical sovereignty, traditional fishing use, and its inclusion within the “nine-dash line,” rejecting United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) rulings that favour the Philippines.

‘No legal basis’ for claims

Located more than 900km (560 miles) from China’s Hainan, Scarborough Shoal is one of many land masses in the South China Sea subject to overlapping claims from China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.

The rocky shoal is a traditional fishing ground for Luzon-based fishermen.

In 2016, an arbitration tribunal in The Hague ruled against China’s claims in the South China Sea, claiming there was “no legal basis” for China’s assertion of economic rights in the strategic waterway.

Nonetheless, China has continued to claim large swaths of territory.

Last month, the Philippines, Australia and Canada held joint drills east of Scarborough Shoal to simulate aerial threats.

China, for its part, has insisted it would defend the area and has performed its own aircraft carrier drills.

Venezuela has sacked its national football coach, Fernando Batista, a day after the team’s FIFA World Cup qualification dream ended following an intervention by the country’s president.

News of Argentinian Batista’s sacking on Wednesday night, alongside his entire backroom staff, came after President Nicolas Maduro called for a “restructuring of the technical staff”.

That was 24 hours after Venezuela, known as the Vinotinto, were thumped 6-3 at home by neighbours Colombia, ending their hopes of qualifying for a World Cup for the first time.

“Yesterday we suffered a painful defeat,” said Maduro.

“All of Venezuela demands a restructuring of the technical staff of the Vinotinto, a reorganisation of the strategy, of the doctrine and of the line of combat and hard work.”

The decision by the sport’s world governing body to expand the FIFA World Cup 2026 in North America from 32 to 48 teams had boosted the hopes of teams like Venezuela – the only side in the CONMEBOL federation never to qualify for the championship – to make it to the global extravaganza for the first time.

But their defeat to Colombia meant that Bolivia – 1-0 winners over five-time champions Brazil – pipped them to a place in the intercontinental playoffs.

Peru, whose hopes of World Cup qualification had ended before the final round of matches, also sacked coach Oscar Ibanez.

Hundreds of South Koreans arrested in a huge immigration raid in the United States are being released to begin the journey home, Seoul said, after warning the “bewildering” episode may have a negative effect on future investment.

South Korea’s President Lee Jae-myung said on Thursday that Korean companies will likely hesitate to make further investments in the US unless Washington improves its visa system for their employees.

This comes after a September 4 immigration raid resulted in the arrest of South Korean workers at a battery factory under construction at Hyundai’s sprawling auto plant west of Savannah.

“When you build a facility or install equipment at a plant, you need technicians, but the United States doesn’t have that workforce and yet they won’t issue visas to let our people stay and do the work,” Lee said during a news conference on Thursday marking his 100th day in office.

South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday that US authorities have released the 330 detainees – 316 of them Koreans – and they were being transported by buses to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport, where they will board a charter flight scheduled to arrive in South Korea on Friday.

The group also includes 10 Chinese, three Japanese and one Indonesian national.

During Lee’s news conference, he said South Korean officials were in discussions with their US counterparts over ways to improve the current system, but added that South Korean companies “can’t help hesitating a lot” about making bigger investments if the workers they need are likely to be arrested by immigration authorities.

“If that’s not possible, then establishing a local facility in the United States will either come with severe disadvantages or become very difficult for our companies. They will wonder whether they should even do it,” Lee added.

‘Cultural differences’

On September 4, the South Korean nationals and other workers were arrested for alleged visa violations at the still-under-construction Hyundai plant in Georgia by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. A spokesperson for ICE said the raid was part of a months-long investigation into labour practices at the site.

Authorities shared the published footage of the workers with chains around their waists and hands, which was widely covered by the South Korean media and scandalised the public.

At the time, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said “business activities of our investors and the rights of our nationals must not be unjustly infringed in the process of US law enforcement.”

The raids came just two weeks after US President Donald Trump reached a breakthrough agreement that spared the Asian electronics exports giant steep tariffs for its products entering the US. As part of the deal, Trump said South Korea had committed to sinking $350bn in investments in the US economy, which Trump added on his Truth Social platform would be “owned and controlled by the United States, and selected by myself”.

The two countries had a total trade volume of $239.6bn in 2024, according to US trade data.

The flight back to South Korea for the workers was reportedly meant to go ahead on Wednesday, but was stopped by Trump, according to the Financial Times, which reported that Trump wanted the workers to remain to train Americans.

South Korean officials said on Thursday that Trump offered to allow the workers to stay in the US, but only one has opted to remain. TV footage showed the workers boarding buses outside the barbed-wire clad fences of a detention centre in the early hours of Thursday to go to Atlanta airport.

Trump had distanced himself from the immigration hawks in his party, saying foreign companies were welcome to “LEGALLY bring your very smart people, with great technical talent”. In a post on Truth Social, he added: “But we do have to work something out where we bring in experts so that our people can be trained so that they can do it themselves.”

South Korea’s Lee called the US raid “bewildering”. He blamed it on “cultural differences”, saying at the news conference that in South Korea, US nationals teaching English while on a tourist visa were not seen as “a serious issue”.

“But the United States clearly doesn’t see things that way,” he added.